Comments from alcohol discussion groups

Here are a few comments made by participants in discussion groups held Friday at Chico State University's "Call to Action Summit."

"Parents are very worried about dropping their young person off in this drinking culture, and they're right to worry," a woman said.

"It's hard booze that's scaring the heck out of me," said one man. "It used to be beer, a slow high. Now they drink a lot and pass out."

"It's a culture of one-upping," a student said. "That's what you did? This is what I'm going to do, and it will be so much gnarlier."

At a group discussing prayer, a young woman said, "Students won't talk about their faith to others. They're afraid of being rebuffed."

A woman who works with students told of a "very mature" 19-year-old girl who wanted to leave Chico State, but whose parents insisted it was the perfect place for her. The girl said her roommates were going out drinking almost every night, and the peer pressure she faced was enormous. "It's going to kill me," the girl said.

A woman said sometimes faculty and staff can be part of the problem. "In the '70s, professors were providing alcohol, and students were drinking with their professors," she said. She wondered "how comfortable the administration is talking real stuff with their faculty and students."